ਲਿਖਣਾ

What does likhna mean in Punjabi? Likhna (ਲਿਖਣਾ) is the Punjabi verb for to write: forming letters and words on paper or on a screen, and composing text such as a letter, a story or an application. Dictionaries define writing as marking letters or symbols on a surface and recording information in readable form.

What does likhna mean in Punjabi?

Dictionaries give the Punjabi verb as likhna, written ਲਿਖਣਾ and pronounced likhṇā, with the command form likho, ਲਿਖੋ, write. The verb covers the whole range of the English word write. It is the physical act of forming letters with a pen, pencil or keyboard, the creative act of composing a poem, a song or a story, and the practical act of recording information so that it can be read later, from a shopping list to a land record.

How is the word used?

Likhna appears wherever Punjabi life is put on paper. Children likh in copybooks at school, families once wrote long chitthian, letters, to sons working abroad, and the patwari's register has always depended on careful likhna. In present day use the same verb covers typing a message, filling a form and posting online. Dictionaries record its everyday forms, such as likhda hai, he writes, and compounds like murh likhna, to write again or rewrite.

Two close relatives of the verb are worth knowing. Likhai (ਲਿਖਾਈ) is the noun for writing itself, including a person's handwriting, so changi likhai means good, clear handwriting. A likhari (ਲਿਖਾਰੀ) is a writer, the person who writes. And when someone says eh gall likh ke de deo, give this in writing, likhna is being trusted as the form that settles a matter.

What is the difference between likhna and parhna?

Likhna puts words down, and parhna takes them in. The two verbs are a natural pair, taught together in every Punjabi classroom and joined in the everyday phrase parh likh for being educated. One without the other is only half of literacy: likhna creates the letter, the book and the record, and parhna is how the next person receives them.